CALL lesson 1 (23-24 Oct)

Objectives

Students will:

— see an animated intro to CALL lessons to get into the spirit of these lessons once again,

— listen to audio messages to develop their understanding of spoken English,

— record an audio message to develop their speaking skills and interpersonal competences.

 

Activities / Procedures

1. watch the "surprise" and comment orally on it

2. listen twice to different messages from teacher-friends: Isabel, Dafne, Cristina and Dennis Oliver (bottom of the voiceboard) [not available anymore]

3. do a post-listening exercise [not possible anymore]

4. write and then record an audio message with the blog Voice board to "thank" all the teachers [not available anymore]

 

More activities / Follow-up

— send comments on the lesson through the blog

http://call05-06.us.splinder.com/

 

 

  

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Text of students' messages

 

6C

Hi, teachers!
We like your messages!!! 🙂
We enjoy this CALL lesson, because we watch a movie by our teacher and we do an exercise about your messages.
We love our teacher!!!
Kisses and hugs  6C

 

 

 

6D

Hi, teachers!
Thank you for the messages for us.
We like the first CALL lesson, because we listen to your messages and we see a movie about CALL lessons.Some don't like the quiz.
Bye! See you! 6.D

 

 

6E

Hello, teachers!
How are you?
We like your messages. Thank you!!  🙂
This is our first CALL lesson this year. We see the teacher's first movie and it was very fun, because it is animated. We have a quiz about you and we like it.
Bye! Nice week! Hugs!!! 6E
P.S. – Give good grades!  😉

 

 

  

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Report on CALL lesson 1

 

I always start setting things up at least 15 minutes before class: connecting my laptop to the school LAN (which worked well and fast), the video projector and the speakers. And then trying things out before the kids come in.

The speakers with a USB connection that I bought and those I borrowed from school didn't work. I'm sure I did something wrong. I'll have to double-check at home. And I did.

 

Lessons learned: (1) When problems started, I should have remembered to restart/reboot the computer. That's a 'golden rule' in such situations, because there must have been some internal incompatibility somewhere that would surely have been eliminated, as happened at home. (2) One of my USB connections doesn't work with the speakers. No sound comes out, but the other does. However, both work with the mouse. Go figure! In class I must remember that I can't turn the volume up or down with the laptop button. I must open the Sound window (icon in the Status bar).

 

6C and 6D (23Oct)

Class went on as planned and there was enthusiasm with the ZimmerTwins movie and the messages. Both classes showed interest in making a movie. So I told them to get in groups and create a 6-8 line dialog and next lesson I'll show them "how to" do it and… they can make their own movies!

 

I had to repeat the content of two messages (Daf's and Dennis') sentence by sentence, because they were recorded a bit low for a big classroom with no speaker amplification. Most students were attentive and did well on the post-listening exercise, which we corrected orally in class. I wrote down their scores.

 

We had time to do everything, but the recording was done on top of the bell ringing in both cases. However, the students had time to see their class message show up on the voice board. They were amazed at the speed of the upload!!! Frederico recorded the message for 6C and Marta recorded for 6D.

 

It's a demanding plan and I need to keep a fast pace to complete everything.

 

Sadly, there are always a couple of students who, no matter what we do, seem to be bored by anything and everything, and don't care much. And it showed on their exercise results.

 

6E (24Oct)

Everything went on, as yesterday, with the BIG difference that the speakers worked. 🙂

 

However, when messages are recorded low, as is the case with Daf and Dennis, the sound doesn't amplify enough (it's a big classroom) and I had to repeat them sentence by sentence. Once again, they were impressed by the fact that Dennis is older and was my student. I find this very cute!!!

 

Diogo R. does the first recording. Though all students had repeated the content of the message written on the board (and copied to their exercise book), he was very nervous, so I had to help him a couple of times. I said the P.S., because he forgot. It was suggested by a new student in class and I thought it revealed great sense of humor. I noticed that Daniela, a new student this year recently arrived from Moldova, showed great interest in recording the message. After all her colleagues left for the break, I let her do it. She's very expressive!

 

The lesson was a hit and 6.C sent three messages at lunchtime today. I'm very happy!